sportsfan8703

Won’t happen a lot. Mullins and Mateo ran wild last year in April, then both had injuries that lingered all season. Mullins is having a resurgence and Mateo has an .800 OPS. We aight. It’s probably only going to happen if Mateo pinch runs.

I chalk it up to Facebook/twitter. Joey Ortiz was the first real darling of Facebook. People on those sites tend to overreact more so than here. It’s the whole “throw the bums out, someone else must be better” mentality.

Here’s an example of why it isn’t the worst thing in the world if a player is sent down to work on things. Cowser. Bradish. Stowers and Kjerstad now. Cowser worked his butt off this offseason it looks like. Kudos to him and the coaching staff.

Looks like a situation where Elias is trying to acquire a project with stuff we like to plug the RH RP role that we didn’t fill in the offseason. 94/95 mph fastball/sinker, throws a lot of sweepers. I prefer him over Heasley. I like Baker and Vespi too in AAA, but Ramirez has some upside if we can get him figured out.

Burnes is the guy that should be extended. I know I know it’s easy to throw out “extend him” with every player we love, but with how our org is setup it makes sense to extend Burnes. Elias can consistently draft and develop bats. We can fill bats in around Burnes over the next 7 years or whatever it takes. Honestly, those bats are probably already in our system.

Keep it as “depth”. We’ll need it to add to this team this season and to replace Burnes, Means, Kimbrel, Santa, and possibly O’Hearn/Mullins/Hays. I’m not writing Hays off yet. O’Hearn also agreed to give us a $3 million option for next season. Santa will be gone. The big decision will be Mullins. I see the replacements lining up like this… Hays -> Stowers, Norby Santa -> Kjerstad Urias -> Mayo Mullins -> Cowser? EBJ? Mateo? Kimbrel -> Bautista Means -> Povich Burnes -> We’ll have to make another trade again. Basallo will be untouchable.

Bauer is still out there. Luzardo could be on the block eventually.

We should’ve kept Gibson.

Good point with Bradish and the milb option he has left. I imagine they take things extremely careful with him. Maybe his first two starts are only 1 IP.

We got a long ways to go before we consider trading for a reliever. If things go right… Wells and Irvin could both be in the bullpen. Maybe McDermott or Seth Johnson become bullpen options. Elias is always working the waiver wire as well. Just remember when talking about what it takes for a stud reliever… The Rangers trade Cole Ragans for Chapman. If you are going to trade for a reliever, then we need someone that’s been in the playoffs preferably too.

Yup. Weather matters. I know we have two openings in the rotation next year, but McDermott is at some point should just start to pitch out of the pen this year so we can see what we have pre-deadline. If it doesn’t work, or we acquire another reliever, then go back to starting. This dude could be a bullpen weapon this year. Especially if Means and Bradish both come back. No need to have him start. Let him learn to relieve before we ask him to do that in the MLB.

Chapman last year cost Cole Ragans FYI. So nobody is cheap. There’s a reason we tried to just grab Fuji. If Wells and Irvin end up back in the pen that helps. We could develop McDermott/Johnson in a flamethrower role.

With Hall in Milwaukee, and Perez hurt, Irvin we be our 3rd lefty/long man. That’s a valuable role on this team. We’ve seen us have to use Heasley in extras. Irvin showed last year that his FB can hit 95ish out the pen.

Means and Irvin are lining up with their starts. Irvin’s last start might be the middle game of the Twins series.

Well we might be getting Means and Bradish starting today. No starter listed for Aberdeen. We’ll probably try and bump Means up to 60ish pitches from 50 his last start. Just one inning for Bradish. Fingers crossed guys and gals.